History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.712.3

v4.c63.712.3

The purchaser in order to escape blame (punishment) has to produce the vendor and if that cannot be done owing to the vendor's absence he has to prove that he purchased⁷⁹³ openly (Bṛ. in SBE 33 p. 335 v. 4, Manu VIII. 202, Kāt. 615, 618-619). If he cannot do any of these two, then the purchaser would be liable to pay the price to the real owner as claimed and a fine to the king. Manu VIII. 198 prescribes that one who sells without being the owner but being a member of the owner's family should be fined 600 paṇas, while a vendor unconnected with the real owner's family should be dealt with as a thief. The same rule applies to a vendor selling another's article through ignorance or mistake and one doing so with full knowledge. The person who has lost a chattel and claims it from the finder is described as *nāṣṭika*⁷⁹⁴ in Kauṭ. III. 16, Manu VIII. 202, Kāt. (614) and elsewhere, the word being derived from *naṣṭa* (what is lost). The idea is that openly purchasing an article in the presence of a number of people for an adequate price negatives fraudulent intent and leads to the inference of a purchase in good faith and such a purchaser even though he may have to part with the chattel to the real owner when the latter proves his title, incurs no blame and is entitled to recover from the vendor, if he has to surrender the article, the price paid by him.